Akamai Earnings Preview: How's That CDN Price War? (AKAM)

Content delivery network Akamai Technologies (AKAM) reports Q4 earnings and guidance after the bell. Join us for LIVE coverage and analysis, beginning at 4 p.m. ET, including the company's earnings call at 4:30 p.m.

Akamai got a lot of attention on inauguration day last month, when it said it served more than 7 million concurrent streams -- a record day for live Web video streaming. But that's not likely to factor into Akamai's Q1 guidance, and won't have anything to do with its Q4 results.

Instead, we're looking for an update on the CDN industry's ongoing pricing war -- especially now that Amazon (AMZN) is going after some low-end business; how CEO Paul Sagan sees the Web video market growing this year; and what progress, if any, the company has made with its recently announced ad targeting platform.

Update: After reading this post, CDN industry analyst Dan Rayburn tells us that Amazon will have no impact at all on major CDN pricing. If that's true, it would be good for Akamai to say that to reassure investors.